Many technological improvements in window and door design have been made available over the last several years. For instance, the insulating properties of newer window constructions are greatly improved over older window constructions, which can often provide significant energy cost savings to property owners. Consequently, a significant need has developed for replacing windows and doors during remodeling of older homes and buildings with newer, more efficient components.
However, most conventional windows, doors, patio doors, etc. are currently built to standardized dimensions. Since different sizes of windows and doors require differently sized components, it is common practice for manufacturers to offer only a limited number of standardized sizes of windows and doors, which reduces the overall manufacturing complexity and cost of these structures based upon the efficiencies obtained through economies of scale.
Many older windows and doors do not conform to standard sizings, and often it is difficult to find replacement windows which exactly fit the rough-in dimensions of a window or door to be replaced. Therefore, since standard sizes of windows and doors are often not acceptable substitutes as replacement windows, some replacement applications may require custom built windows or doors, which typically require individual components to be separately manufactured to size. Consequently, custom window construction often does not obtain the benefits of economies of scale, e.g., high volume production of structures using standardized parts. Thus, many custom windows and doors are significantly more expensive than their standardized counterparts.
Therefore, a need exists for a modular system for manufacturing windows and doors of custom sizes and shapes which offers less complex and expensive manufacture of structures such as windows and doors. In particular, such a need exists for replacement applications where standardized components are often not compatible.
One solution to the need for mass produced custom size windows is extrusion. For any given window dimensions, a sash profile is simply extruded to desired lengths to provide a suitably dimensioned sash. Such a sash should be cost effective to manufacture yet sturdy and reliable in use. Together with the glass panel it supports, the extruded sash should function as adequate insulation against the elements and should cooperate with the glass panel to provide an adequate seal therebetween. Such a sash should also be designed to support and/or cooperate with other window components and associated structure in ideal a manner as possible.